At 95, there was no other way to describe Dalyce Curry, or “Momma Dee,” to her large extended family other than “fantastic.”
“My grandmother still wore her big hair, glasses, nails, you know, painted on makeup,” said her granddaughter and namesake Dalyce Kelley, “You know, she was just fantastic, period.”
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1929, that great personality was destined for one place: Hollywood.
She settled in Los Angeles, where she never became a star but did interact with some of the elites of old Hollywood, including backup singer Pearl Bailey, an extra in a scene with Diana Ross in “Lady Sings the Blues” and accompanied by the first black woman to ever sign a film contract.
Curry died last week at her Altadena home as the Eaton Fire raged through the community.
Her granddaughter had dropped her off at her home around 11:30 p.m., after spending a day in the hospital for tests after feeling dizzy. During the drive, they saw the fire in the distance and the power went out as they exited the highway in Altadena.
But the power was on in her grandmother’s neighborhood and there was no sign of immediate danger, so Kelley told her grandmother she would check in later and left. She asked in a text group in the neighborhood if someone could call her if there were evacuations.
She woke up the next morning around 5:30 a.m. to a message in the group chat asking if Curry had been released during the overnight evacuations.
Kelley rushed to Altadena, but was not allowed past a police barricade. An officer called her and said her grandmother’s cottage had burned to the ground. Then she frantically searched for her grandmother in shelters.
Four days later, the family received confirmation from the Los Angeles coroner’s office that Curry had died, one of at least 25 victims of the devastating Los Angeles fires.
Curry said the family memories, including photos dating back 90 years, were all lost in the fire.
The only thing belonging to her grandmother that was left unscathed was a midnight blue 1981 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. It fell through, but Curry had hoped to fix it up and rent it to production companies making films set in the 1980s.
Curry also had other ties to the film industry, beginning after she befriended Nellie Crawford, who went by the stage name Madame Sul-Te-Wan, at a Los Angeles beauty salon in the early 1950s, Kelley says. grandmother’s stories as best she can.
Crawford was the first black woman to appear in films after signing with Fine Arts. She appeared in films such as the 1915 historical film “Birth of a Nation.” When Curry told Crawford she was interested in art and theater, Crawford said, “Well, that’s it. I’m going to take you under my wing. You are my goddaughter.”
That led to Curry getting additional work in 1956’s “The Ten Commandments,” in which she danced and bowed to the king.
“It was a small part, but we were very proud,” Kelley said. Curry also worked as an extra in “Lady Sings the Blues” and “The Blues Brothers,” her granddaughter said, and sang and danced as Pearl Bailey’s backup at locations across the US.
Later in life, Curry became a nurse and worked in convalescent homes and private care. Curry, who used her maiden name, had a son. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.
Kelley said she will miss her grandmother’s positivity, energy, light, strength and her signature phrase: “Nothing is as bad as it seems, even in the worst case.”
“Everyone should kind of live by that, even the people who were victims of this fire and lost loved ones and lost everything, lost their homes and had to see this devastation,” Kelley said.
___
Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.